16 INTRODUCTION. 
sentiment. On that day, however, it was loudly declared, and 
although Carasco was suffered to remain in his office, the whole of 
the other members of his government, with the exception of Reyes, 
the secretary, were dismissed, imprisoned, or banished. A few days 
afterwards Carasco himself was cashiered, and _brigadier-general 
Torre, Conde de la Conquista, was elected captain-general by the 
people. 
At this time the royal troops in Chile consisted only of the usual 
2000 men on the Indian frontier, with about fifty dragoons in the 
capital; and of these a part had been already gained over to the 
cause of independence by Don Bernardo O’Higgins, then bearing a 
colonel’s commission, and stationed at Chillan, his native town. 
This officer was the son of Don Ambrosio O’ Higgins, Marquis of 
Osorno, who sent him early to Europe, where he remained some 
years, five of which were spent in England, at the academy of 
Mr. Hill, at Richmond, in Surrey, where he had not only learned the 
language perfectly, but a good deal of the free and independent spirit 
of the nation. 
The conditions on which Torre was made captain-general were, 
that he should not acknowledge the French regency, but reserve the 
province of Chile for king Ferdinand, adhering meantime to the 
principles and constitution of the junta. But some bolder patriots 
ventured to hint at a more complete independence, and the Marquis, 
with his natural timidity, at first endeavoured to silence these whis- 
pers, and afterwards sent the authors of them, among whom was the 
poet Dr. Vera, prisoners to Lima. Mean time the principal persons 
of the country had resolved on a complete change in the form of 
government, and on the 18th September of the same year a meeting 
was held, at which the office of captain-general was suppressed, and 
a junta was appointed which was to acknowledge the rights of Fer- 
dinand, but to resist every foreign authority. Torre, the ex-captain- 
general, was named president ; his colleagues were the Marquis de la 
Plata (the richest man in Chile), Don Francisco Rayna, Don Juan 
Henrique Rosales, Don Juan Martinez Rosas, and Don Ingnacio 
